Posted
by
michael
on Thursday June 03, 2004 @10:08AM
from the numerology dept.

mclearn writes "Did you know that the writers of Futurama have a collective set of degrees that would rival most think tanks? Here is a hilarious site on the mathematics of Futurama -- specifically this article (pdf). The same authors have also researched the mathematics of the Simpsons, mentioned on Slashdot long ago."

Sadly, it was more like "too smart to stay on the air." See, American television viewers don't like television shows that make them feel stupid. Instead of watching intelligent, well-written shows like Futurama, they instead watch unintelligent pablum like "American Idol."

It's things like this that make me turn to the Internet, great liberator [suprnova.org] of properly smart programmes that were cancelled before their time.

I think you're giving the writers a bit too much credit. The episode had nothing to do with "title flaws", I mean, the guy literally went back in time and had sexual intercourse with his grandmother. The show is intelligent, sure, but that particular plotline is not what I would consider the height of intelligent writing.

The episode had nothing to do with "title flaws", I mean, the guy literally went back in time and had sexual intercourse with his grandmother.

The "grandfather paradox" (what if I went back in time and killed my grandfather - thus my father would never be born, thus I would never exist, thus I couldn't go back in time and commit the murder, so my grandfather would live, so my father would be born, so...) is a sci-fi cliche. Their take on it was great!

Fry, trying to protect his "grandfather", ends up killing him, only to be seduced by his grandmother (believing, in his half-witted way, that since his "grandfather" is dead, his grandmother can't really be his grandmother) and becomes his own grandather. It's gross, it's ironic, it's funny.

That's Fox's fault. Futurama kept on being pre-empted by sports, moved around and basically becoming a programming ragdoll for Fox. The same thing happened to Family Guy, they had less episodes made (50, compared to Futurama's 75) and they are coming back on the air. Some buzz is going around that Futurama could share in the same fate, it's possible because Fox doesn't own the rights to Futurama like they do with Family Guy. Groening and Co. just made episodes and Fox paid them to show them on Fox.

I've watched extensive hours of The Simpsons, Futurama and Family Guy and I've come to this conclusion...

The Simpsons is the series with the biggest environment. Have you seen the picture with about 200 people from The Simpsons on it? They mix humor with a wide spectrum of different characters and get a great show.

Futurama has the best writing, hands down, no question about it. You listen to the commentary of why certain elements were in it, and you think to yourself "wow, that's pretty sneaky". Plus, the seamless blend of computer animation and hand-drawn animation by Rough Draft Korea makes it the best animated series.

Family Guy has the best jokes IMO. Family Guy doesn't hold punches when they lay down jokes. The Simpsons has their funny jokes, Futurama has smart jokes, but Family Guy has gut-busting jokes that go to new heights. The only thing I'd change is put Lacey Chabert back as the voice of Meg, when I hear Mila Kunis' whiny voice, I think of Jackie, not Meg.

Another application of the uncertainty principle. How do you know if the site is/.ed if don't click the link. But when you click the link you chance the process, since your click might be the one that caused the/. effect.
Now how do I get that damn cat hooked up?

Schrödinger's Cat was a thought experiment to demonstrate that the uncertainty principle could have macroscopic effects.

The uncertainty principle dictates that you can't measure something without influencing it (e.g. a thermometer's reservoir doesn't have the same temperature as the liquid you're measuring and therefore will change the temperature a little bit).
My example means you can't (remotely) "measure" if a webserver is still operating, without sending a datapacket to it. If the server was already at the very edge of its capabilities, your ping could push it over the edge and/. it. Doesn't that qualify as influencing your "measurement"?

The Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle says that you can know either the position or velocity of a subatomic particle, but not both. Further refined, the better you estimate velocity, the worse your estimate of position and vice versa.

Schroedinger's Cat, however, illustrates the wavefunction of a quantum particle...the cat is either alive or dead, but you can't know which until you check. Whether you look or not doesn't influence the cat's mortality rate. You can say that it's the measurement (opening the box) that causes the cat to live or die, but the cat already was in that state when you checked. That is the essential problem raised by this thought experiment.

Check this page:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schr%F6dinger%27s_c at

and note that the word "uncertainty" does not appear. Of course, it might appear on the page, and it might not...you won't know until you click on it.;)

So your analogy holds between the webserver and the cat, but the uncertainty principle is not involved. That is what I'm trying to clarify.

Since Farnsworth said at the horse track when his horse lost in a photo finish:"No fair! you changed the outcome by measuring it."

It was that day that I knew that Futurama was for me, since I figure the vast majority of casual viewers watching it would not have a clue. The fact that they thew a quantum computing reference out there that would be above 99% of the viewers told me this show was different, and it was for me. It takes balls to do jokes that the majority of people won't get. And that earns my respect...That and the numerous Rush references...

'The Farnsworth Paradox' is proof that Futurama is too good for mainstream viewing.
An work of genius unappreciated by an audience forever presented with reality tv nobrainer shows.
"I've been as dumb as Fry"
"No I'm doesn't!"

Freakworth: "Dig it! All of you fitting in this box is like, seriously freaked up."Farnsworth: "Nonsense! Why, there's a whole universe in there."Freakworth: "Dude. There's a universe in all of us."Freak Amy: "Right on, professor Freakworth."[Professor Freakworth proffers a flower to Professor Farnsworth]Farnsworth: "Get a job!"

WHY FOX WHYYYYY?????

There are murmurs that Matt G is trying to resurrect Futurama on the Cartoon Network... let us pray that it is so.

The problem with resurrecting it on Cartoon Network is that Futurama's 2D-CG hybrid style is very, very expensive to produce (at least several million per episode). CN doesn't have that kind of money; just look at most of their homegrown shows. The only thing they've done that matches Futurama's quality is the Clone Wars cartoons, and that was a single half-hour of animation and almost certainly done with Lucas's financial backing.

The problem with resurrecting it on Cartoon Network is that Futurama's 2D-CG hybrid style is very, very expensive to produce (at least several million per episode).

That just seems amazingly doubtful. The pilot might have cost that much, to develop the style, etc., but to wrap simple cartoon textures on 3-D objects sounds pretty cheap these days. Far cheaper than paying animators to hand paint, arrange, and photograph thousands of animation cells...

The gang goes to visit the edge of the universe. It's one of those tourist activities that you never get around to. There is a telescope looking out into the empty expanse. Fry looks into the telescope and sees a mirror image of his entire group, except everyone has a beard, as in Star Trek's evil Spock. Fry asks who they are, and Prof. Farnsworth tells him it's another universe.

SNOBOL is an early-60s era programming language. The only reason I caught that joke was one of my professors mentioned it offhand the day I saw that episode. I am forever impressed by the writers of P&tB because of this quote.

The key component of the NES system is the MOS 6502 CPU. This is the main processor where the game's code is executed. This CPU was very popular in the 1980's where it was used in some of the first personal computers including the Commodore 64, Apple II, and the Atari systems.

I thought that was hilarious, but most others I've spoken to have completely missed the joke, even if they did see the "6502" number.

This all reminds me of the old saying that at its most advanced, mathmatics is indistinguishable from magic.

All those lovely Escher pictures [unc.edu] similarly show the ways in which selective use of mathmatics & physics can create imaginary worlds that, while they could not necessaily occur in reality, "feel" realistic.

Keep hoping. The animation quality on that show does not come cheap. Do you remember the ill-fated return of The Critic in Flash? It was terrible. If you cant afford good animators you can't afford good writers. You need x amount of capital to get the ball rolling and I believe Fururama was VERY expensive, moreso than the Simpsons.

Time is also against the Futurama fans, whatever "synergy" the creative team had has changed. Its simply not feasible to expect them to suddenly do high-quality work again from such a long hiatus, and thats assuming you can even get all the people.

Production is a very odd thing, when there's a good team they do good work. There are probably two to three episodes of Futurama which I think are low quality and the rest are really just gems. The problem is the network idiots didn't know they were holding a diamond and wouldnt give them a consistant timeslot.

Ideally, the Simpsons should have been cancelled after the first season of Futurama and Futurama would have taken its place. There's only so much you can do with the Simpsons and its simply been done, over and over. Futurama would have given Fox a new platform to create comedy and sell lots of commercials

They dropped the ball, and here we are. Expect the Simpsons to become a horrible shell of what it used to be (many will say its already happened) and a sad "had it coming" cancelation instead of a proud exit.

IMO there's nothing worse than a show which is long past its prime being flogged like a dead horse. All the great comedy series are great because they stopped before they got bad - Fawlty Towers, Seinfeld, The Office.

1. Take one Great Show that will have a built-in initial audience because of who's creating it, and stick it in the Time Slot Of Doom.
2. Watch Great Show continually get pre-empted by NFL football, but do little to nothing to ensure that Great Show can be seen by fans at a regular day and time. Bounce Great Show around in your schedule like a pinball.
3. Totally ignore the creator of Great Show, who's Previous Great Show almost single-handedly saved your network in it's early years.
4. Wonder why Great Show just can't seem to get any ratings. Cancel Great Show because it's cheaper to run Previous Great Show reruns in the Time Slot Of Doom.

The hell with Fox. There was a time that they were a pretty kick ass network, but like every other network they've fallen into the pit of Reality TV. Futurama deserves to be on Cartoon Network.

Perhaps more to the point, Cartoon Network deserves Futurama. It's the only American TV network I've yet to hear anything bad about. Man, if CN got the Simpsons too, you'd never have to change channel.

Yeah, they're pretty dumb. Isn't it an amazing coincidence that they're as successful as the other major networks which have been around much longer?

Come on. I loved Futurama and I loved Firefly, and I'm pissed that they were canceled, but I can't paint it as a bad business decision. This very article (about the advanced math in the show) makes the point that it didn't really appeal to the mainstream viewer. "Mainstream" may translate to "those slack-jawed idiots who can't even code in C" in your mind, but in the coffers at a TV network "mainstream" means "the main stream of our revenue - large numbers of people who like the same stuff". And I don't think that "the height of its popularity" was ever that high. It's a big hit with geeks, but most of the non-geeks I know aren't interested or don't seem to "get it".

Personally, I think the problem is that there is no way for people to pay different amounts for shows. When you watch network TV, you're paying with your eyes. Number of viewers determines their advertisers, and that's where they make the money. That means that a mediocre show, which will mildly appeal to everyone, is more profitable than a show which will be deeply loved by a small group of people. If the compensation was somehow better differentiated, I think we'd get better shows.

No, I don't actually have a good system of differentiated compensation to propose, short of buying the canceled shows on DVD. Sorry.

There's been a number of good shows that never really had a chance at gaining an audience.

Take FOX's main revenue stream: The Simpsons. It didn't have a whole lot of eyeballs it's first couple of seasons. But FOX was new, and didn't have anything better to try out. It also put the Simpsons on in arguably the best time slots there could possibly be for a new show, with no heavy hitters up against it on other channels. Simpsons eventually drew the crowd. All the news propaganda and churches denouncing the sh

If I recall correctly, one of the main writters had a masters in mathematics.

It is interesting to listen to the commentary tracks on the dvd's. For example, in "Roswell that ends well", Fry (one of the main characters) ends up going back in time and accidently kills his grandfather. While consoling his grandmother, he ends up in bed with her and thus becomes his own grandpa allowing the future to remain "intact".

On the commentary tracks, they get into this large discussion about how they tried to find the steady state solution for the amount of DNA in Fry that was pure, and they ended up working on it for quite some time. In the end, they give an email address and ask the public for the solution.

Then they got into a large discussion on the causality of time and how they should only time travel forward.

Ken Keeler has a PhD in Applied Math and a Masters in Electrical Engineering.
David Cohen has a bachelors in Physics and a Masters in Computer Science.
Bill Odenkirk has a PhD in Inorganic Chemistry.
Jeff Westbrook has a PhD in Computer Science.
J. Burns has a bachelors in Mathematics.

1729When Srinivasa Ramanujan, the great Indian mathematician, was ill with tuberculosis in a London hospital, his colleague G. H. Hardy went to visit him. Hardy, trying to initiate onversation, said to Ramanujan, "I came here in taxi-cab number 1729. That number seems dull to me which I hope isn't a bad omen."

"Nonsense," replied Ramanujan. "The number isn't dull at all. It's quite interesting. It's the smallest number that can be expressed as the sum of two cubes in two different ways." (Ramanujan recognized that 1729 = 13 + 123 as well as 93 + 103.)

Copied from here [curiousmath.com] I guess it was worth the 5 minutes I spent searching for it.

Get an advanced degree in mathematics or physics, and you will come up with the idea to put "St. Pauli Exclusion Principle" on a six-pack of beer in a cartoon, and only a few geeks who like to stay up and watch Adult Swim last night will get the joke.

The article refers to 1729 being "a historically significant integer to mathematicians everywhere". If you're not a mathematician, 1729 is Ramanujan's number -- the smallest natural number that can be written as a sum of cubes in two different ways:

Recently, CN reran the first episode, and I noticed that you could actually see Nibbler's shadow before Fry falls into the cryochamber.If anyone has the first episode as originally aired, was the shadow always there, or did they edit that into the scene for syndication after they did the episode with the brains?

If it was always there, I'm seriously impressed with the planning that went into the story arc.

I just wanna know if I was the only one that did the caculation of Fry's intrest on his 93 cents? (on a Ti-83 none the less, they used a palm, wusses)Also, who else here was the only one in the room cracking up hen the professor complained about the quantum finish?

Those little things that go into futurama are what make it worth my time to watch, and that is sying a lot.

Bender: Hey robot, what's your serial number?Flexo: 3370318.Bender: No way! Mine's 2716057.
[They both laugh. Then Fry laughs, but stops and looks confused.]Fry: I don't get it.Bender: We're both expressable as the sum of two cubes.Flexo: Woooh!

In the DVD commentary, David Cohen goes on to say that it's tricky to find the cubes. Well, he's right. Here's the trick, in case you were interested:

3370318 = 119^3 + 119^3
2716057 = 952^3 + (-951)^3

No one ever said the cubed numbers had to be positive.... and yes, I'm a dork for working this out!

Same way they could justify it for:1. Linux distrosWhether they only use a small part of their bandwidth, or the whole thing, their ISP bill isn't going to get any higher. So might as well download the thing for free rather than getting the boxed set CD / DVD in the mail... which costs money. Of course the hundreds of users doing so may drive up the bandwidth bill at the distro's server end, but hey.. not their problem.

2. FOSSSame thing - how many of you have even dropped a penny into a paypal account fo

There's more to this than one realizes. DVDs are almost the sole indicator to the distributor of how much demand there is for a TV show. Ever wonder how/why Family Guy is being brought back? It's because the DVD sales of that show were phenomenal. All those sales said to Fox "maybe this show actually *is* popular."

If you like Futurama enough to want to see it come back, then buying the DVD is basically the only way to prove to Fox that it's worth it. It tells them a) you love the show and b) you love the show enough to spend good money on it. That last one is probably the more important bit.

Personally, I think the slightly geekier audience of Futurama vs Family guy didn't help its dvd sales; geeks are probably more willing to search out for Bittorrents/kazaa/emule/gnutella of a show, while the mass market is content with dvds.

I hate to be a twit, but in this one case I'm gonna say it:Buy the DVDs!

The show was funny and deserves the support of its fans.

Man, I'll copy DVDs of crappy Hollywood movies I get from Netflix all day long, but those TV Show boxed sets I buy the day they come out. 20 or so hours of entertainment for $50 (or $20 on ebay). They seem like a pretty good deal to me.

I've come to the conclusion that the only way that anyone will make more TV I'd actually like to watch is if I spend money on the things that have been produced already. They wouldn't keep making Star Trek crap if people weren't buying the old stuff.

All that said, I see at least the entire first season on suprnova.org right now.

Actually, they were wiped out by aliens. This was mentioned in a number of episodes.

But of course, we all know that the Earth of the future was wiped out by something far more insidious, a force even more dastardly than the giant brains, the giant anti-brains at Fox. If it doesn't have bitch-slaps, gratuitous cleavage or people being humiliated, it's not for Fox. Of course this doesn't explain "24" and "Malcolm in the Middle", two other good shows, but it does explain most of them.

Aliens wiping out the earth was in the pilot episode. When Fry is in the cyro tube it shows the world being destroyed by flying saucers, then being rebuilt to around a bronze age and being destroyed again. I think it was mainly a satire of The Time Machine.

That's my favorite Futurama episode. I like the ones where Fry kicks ass (the Devil's Hands one is good too).

What a great show. It had a bad time slot and was probably too geeky for mainstream. In fact, I was part of the problem. I didn't even watch it very much when new shows were coming out. I had this "Simpsons wannabe" attitude and thought the show was OK, but nothing special. It was only years later that I discovered how great the show actually is.

3D animation, technical references galore, very funny.

I almost fell out of my chair when on that one episode there were a bunch of aliens (invaders or something?) coming out of a spaceship making all sorts of arcade references and such, then one goes "All your base are belong to us!"

"I had this "Simpsons wannabe" attitude and thought the show was OK, but nothing special. It was only years later that I discovered how great the show actually is."

You discovered that you would like the show, not that it is great. Futurama is for geeks. It is smart in a "Geek" sort of way. The Simpsons is smart, but you don't have to be a Slashdotter to get the stuff.

Face reality: You were right the first time, sort of. I wouldn't call it a Simpsons wannabe, but rather "Simpsons in the Future" or

I never laughed so hard during the Simpsons as when I heard the guy say that.

For a recap, they're talking about how a certain cliff is popular for being used in suicides. And a geek (sounded like the Krusty-Burger fry cook shouts as he's leaping: "Why did they Cancel Futuramaaaaaaaaaaa!!!!!?????"

I think that was a good dig by Groening. Fox really shafted them from the beginning. I think he even said so much in an interview.

Man, I miss Futurama. I think I'm gonna watch the DVD's again when I get home tonight.